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Greg Maddux was one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history. That's something anyone with access to baseball-reference.com can figure out.
But those of us who watched his career unfold know he was one of the most cerebral pitchers. There are stories about him purposely giving up a home run to Jeff Bagwell in the regular season just to set him up in case he saw Bagwell in the playoffs. Or what about the time that he told everyone in the dugout to move because the next pitch would result in a line drive to their spot -- and then it happened. Or what about the time a catcher caught a Maddux pitch blindfolded, showing how easily he could hit his spots? And on and on the lore goes as to Maddux's brain power.
But Maddux was also a character. How about this one, from ajc.com back in 2009:
In Montreal they used to have a big bowl of jellybeans in the clubhouse, and Gerald Williams would come in every day and pick out the red ones. One day [Maddux] got to the ballpark two hours early and dumped the whole bowl and took out all the red ones. Took him a couple of hours, but he just wanted to sit in the corner and snicker when Gerald came in and started looking for the red jellybeans.
Or how about this picture?
That's Maddux's own Twitter AVI, obviously another example of his sense of humor.
So for this week's installment of The Bobblehead Project, we wanted to capture everything. Here is Greg Maddux, being goofy, cerebral, seemingly a tad out of baseball shape in his retirement and absolutely 100-percent ready to make any hitter who dares step into the batter's box look like a fool.
You think you can get a hit off that guy? Of course, you do. That's what he wants you to think. In two pitches, he'll saw you off for a weak grounder -- to a specific infielder of choice. Meanwhile, you're headed back to the dugout shaking your head and wondering what the hell just happened.
Because he's Greg freaking Maddux. And you're not.
Got a Bobblehead Project submission? Hit me up! matt.snyder@cbs.com
Thanks again to our excellent artist, Jarod Valentin.
Bobblehead Gallery (click on thumbnail) ...
